Page 159 of Pretty Little Lies

“Nothing,” I say too quickly, and Torin guides us to the couch, plops down, and brings me with him.

I’m not getting out of this, but I’m not going to tell him what’s up either.

“What does this nothing include, because it looks pretty complicated?. You zoned off for two whole minutes and I was starting to think you were frozen or something.”

“Just thinking about Dad.”

“And how you’re going to pay for the bills?” he deadpans, all too knowingly, like the leader in arms that he is.

Know your enemy.

Learn how to destroy your adversaries.

Examine their weaknesses.

“You know I can do this for you. I can fix—” I shake my head, but Torin’s fingers wrap around the edge of my jaw, and he turns me to face him head on. “I get the prideful rock you’ve built yourself on, but I’m full of means that I’m never going to spend on anything as useful as this. Let me help you.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Please, don’t.”

Torin bites down on his lower lip and growls low in his chest before muttering, “Fuck, I never knew how sexy that would sound off your lips.Please…damn.”

I ignore him, staring deep into dark ebbs of browns and colorless shadows of mystery. “I’m not your girlfriend.”

The pad of his thumb brushes along my cheek. “Aren’t you, though? I want you to be. I guess I never officially asked, and we’ve never spoken about it.”

“Reeve.”

I don’t need to say anything else; it’s obvious. How in the world would we ever explain it to anyone, let alone my sisters, Dad,Levi.

“Will definitely fall in line. He’s obsessed with you.”

“And you’re okay with letting me fuck another dude while you’re not around?”

“As long as it’s only him,” he says back, still keeping his voice down. “You screw someone else behind my back…” He allows his threat to carry out its own weight, permitting my brain to go to the lengths of how far Torin would punish me and if that includes a death sentence.

“I don’t want you to pay for Dad’s bills,” I convey as softly as I can, even though my rationality is begging me to give in to it. “I can handle it.”

“But at what cost, Bay? You can’t run drugs when your dad isn’t well. Muncy is on the lookout, and it’s not in The Landings, but here. I bet you already knew that, didn’t you?”

I breathe out an exhale and nod. “Yeah…I knew that.”

“And you’d only know that to keep your head up, or if you were about to go run something illegal.” He stares at me and drops his hand from my face. “I’m not stupid and I know how we met. I’m aware of why you do what you do, and it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the reckless danger behind it. I runMuncy in The Landings, but Emilio has him on a tight leash everywhere else. He hates Levi.”

“Muncy or daddy dearest?”

“Emilio only hates Levi because he can’t manipulate him, and Muncy loathes Levi because your boy toy is too smart to get caught.”

“I have my own inside stuff to keep us out of trouble.”

Torin lifts a sulky brow. “His name wouldn’t happen to be Travis, would it?” I sigh because he just fucking knows everything, doesn’t he? “You ever fuck that kid?”

“You want me to punch you in the fucking balls right here, right now?”

“Are you going to suck them after—” I elbow him in the gut, not hard, but to keep his mouth shut when my sisters are only a few feet away, trading candy and singing along to“Watermelon Sugar”by Harry Styles.

---